By: Claire Scott

I live inside parentheses
My home since I was six
At night I gently lift one
Or the other and slip out
Tentative, tactful
Not upsetting syntax
Not capsizing capital letters
Or kicking commas
To the foot of the page
Careful not to waken words
Snoring softly on the page
Lightly stepping over short ones
…………… and but night hands
Leaping over long ones
…………… molestation dissociation
Not daring venture to another
Paragraph for fear of losing
The path back to the curved
safety of my parentheses.

One night I swear I won’t go back
…………… Just not tonight
………………………… Please not tonight.